Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht

The Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance – Reason and Justice or Alliance Sahra Wagenknecht – Reason and Justice (Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht – Vernunft und Gerechtigkeit, BSW) is a left-wing nationalist, populist, Eurosceptic and socially conservative German political party founded on 8 January 2024. The party was preceded by the establishment of a registered association, created on 26 September 2023 and primarily made up of former members of the German political party The Left (Die Linke), for the purposes of preparing the founding of the new political party. Plans for the new party were presented at a federal press conference on 23 October 2023 by Bundestag members Sahra Wagenknecht, Amira Mohamed Ali, and Christian Leye, former managing director of The Left in North Rhine-Westphalia Lukas Schön, and entrepreneur Ralph Suikat.

Amira Mohamed Ali announced that she, along with Wagenknecht, Leye, and seven other members of the Bundestag faction, would leave The Left to form part of the newly-founded BSW; they would maintain their membership in The Left's parliamentary group (Fraktion) and retain parliamentary privileges, but the faction was dissolved by The Left on 6 December 2023.

The main goal of the association is to build a structure for a new party led by Wagenknecht. The association is sceptical of both green politics and support for Ukraine in the Russo-Ukrainian War which led to the party being seen as Russophilic. According to various polls, between 12 and 20 percent (with as high as 32% in eastern Germany) of Germans said they would consider voting for BSW.

Background
Wagenknecht, who has been described as a prominent left-wing politician, was a member of The Left and its predecessors, such as the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) and the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS); her political positions are generally identified as left-wing populist. Although she was co-leader of The Left from 2015 to 2019, conflict with other party members on topics, such as the German refugee policy, COVID-19 vaccination, and the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, had led to speculation since 2021 that she would leave The Left and found a new political party.

Speculation increased in the run-up to the 2023 Hessian state election and the 2023 Bavarian state election on 8 October, in which The Left failed to reach the 5% electoral threshold while the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) surged in both. The success of the AfD led Wagenknecht to claim that a left-wing populist party could compete with the AfD while also respecting the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany.

Sahra Wagenknecht blames Die Linke's successive electoral failures (the party's national share of the vote having fallen from 12% in 2009 to 5% in 2021) on its emphasis on policies to combat sexist, racist or homophobic discrimination, to the detriment of economic issues. She argues for the primacy of the latter, in contrast to the intersectional approach of the party's leadership, which uses the term "classism" to refer to the social question as a form of discrimination, in the same way as sexism or racism. In her view, the working classes no longer recognize themselves in the discourse of the left, and are turning to the far-right AfD party as a receptacle for the protest vote.

Association registration
The association BSW – Für Vernunft und Gerechtigkeit e.V., based in Karlsruhe, was entered in the association register at the district court in Mannheim on 26 September 2023. In mid-October, over fifty members of The Left submitted an application for Wagenknecht's exclusion from the party in order to prevent her from building a new party with the resources of The Left.

Members of the party and political commentators blamed the ongoing speculation about the founding of a new party and the resulting breakup of the Left for its poor results in the state elections. Martin Schirdewan, federal chairman of The Left and co-chair of The Left in the European Parliament – GUE/NGL, declared that the party would expel members who committed to the founding of a rival party by BSW. The Federal Executive Board of The Left passed a resolution of incompatibility (Unvereinbarkeitsbeschluss) with BSW.

Shortly after the press conference was announced, a fake website was registered under www.bswpartei.de that presented itself as the official website of the party, using copyrighted imagery and Wagenknecht's office address in its imprint. Wagenknecht would file a criminal report against the website, which is now offline. It is still unclear who created it.

Members of BSW in the German Bundestag want to continue working as a parliamentary group and have submitted a corresponding application to the President of the Bundestag. When the Wagenknecht Group was constituted in the Bundestag on 11 December 2023, Wagenknecht was elected its chairman, Klaus Ernst its deputy chairman, and Jessica Tatti its parliamentary managing director. The association also started being represented in the Berlin House of Representatives, by Alexander King, the Hamburg Parliament, by Metin Kaya and, the Parliament of Rhineland-Palatinate by Andreas Hartenfels a former member of Alliance 90/The Greens.

Party foundation
The party was officially founded on 8 January 2024, followed by a two hour long press conference. This formation process saw the creation of a new website and the publishing of the first party manifesto for BSW. The party also named its lead candidates for the 2024 European Parliament election in Germany and announced that it had already created a full list of candidates due to be approved at the first party conference.

The University of Potsdam developed a political test, BSW-O-Mat (name being a reference to the Wahl-O-Mat by the bpb), based on the first party manifesto. The test was released on the same day as the manifesto.

It was announced on 1 December 2023 that the first party conference is planned to be held on 27 January 2024. Ralph Suikat also commented at the time, that the association had thus far received an amount of donations in the seven figures, this was later clarified to be 1.4 million Euros collected during the whole of 2023. The majority (90%) of which were small donations, only 12,000 € in total were donated from non-EU foreign countries, thereof 75 € in total from Russia.

On 27 January 2024, the party held it first party conference and invited 450 of its founding members. The party elected its executive committee and formulated a draft program for the 2024 European Parliament election in Germany, which included criticisms of the European Union in its current form and demands for more decision-making power to the member states and significant restriction of migration to Germany. The party won six seats, and saw particular strength in East Germany.

Academic and media descriptions
The BSW has been variously described as populist, socialist, economically socialist, cultural conservative, social-conservative,  left-wing populist,  left-wing nationalist  and left-conservative. The latter label is used in part due to its left-leaning economic positions and having right-leaning social and cultural positions, which have been described by Wurthmann as being popular among anti-establishment and right-leaning voters. In response to descriptions of the party as far right or socially right-wing, political scientist Thorsten Faas said that Wagenknecht was still a politician with a left-wing profile, even within the Left Party, and commented: "I would be a bit cautious about that, because it is of course a clearly left-wing project. This is certainly not a politician who represents a right-wing position."

On the left–right political spectrum, the party has been usually positioned in the left-wing, or the far-left, while being closer to the right-wing on socio-cultural issues, such as immigration and gender diversity; this combination of stances has been compared to those of the Socialist Party in the Netherlands and the Communist Party of Greece. Sarah Wagner, a lecturer in political science at Queen's University Belfast, and a former postdoctoral researcher at the University of Mannheim, who has studied Wagenknecht's political rise, commented: "We can't really say exactly how many people align themselves with left-conservative values. But what we can say is that it's a significant group. We have never seen this combination in a party in Germany before."

Policies and political positions
The political positions of the BSW include further restrictions on immigration, a plan for deglobalization, opposition to green politics, ending military aid to Ukraine, and a negotiated settlement to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Wagenknecht considers the BSW to stand primarily in opposition to Alliance 90/The Greens. In an interview with the Süddeutsche Zeitung, Wagenknecht stated that her party is "obviously not right-wing", instead being left-wing in the sense of "striving for more social justice, good wages, decent pensions" and "a foreign policy that returns to the tradition of détente instead of relying more and more on the military card". However, Wagenknecht rejected the label left-wing (links) within the name of the new party, saying that "many people today associate [it] with completely different content" and with "elitist debates", and that the BSW would appeal to a "broad spectrum of potential voters". Wagenknecht felt that The Left had become socially liberal and what she called "left-lifestyle" rather than left-wing, and accused progressives in The Left of being "too focused on diet, pronouns, and the perception of racism" as opposed to "poverty and an ever-growing gap between rich and poor."

The BSW supports economic interventionism and greater welfare social benefits, which are to be financed by the wealthy, while assets and inheritances should be spared. Wagenknecht published a five-page manifesto that focused on issues like deteriorating bridges and roads, bad mobile phone reception, slow internet, and overwhelmed administrations. Despite the criticism against the Greens and green politics, the manifesto has been argued to "echo the industrial strategy presented by Robert Habeck of the Greens", emphasising innovation and BSW's commitment to social justice, progress, and economic growth. Wagenknecht dismissed her critics saying she wanted to turn the economy into that of East Germany, and instead is an advocate of ordoliberalism, which supports a fair market economy, and strong social policies. Additionally, BSW's combination of socialist economic policies with conservative ones on socio-cultural issues attracted both support and scepticism.

BSW's foreign policy has been labelled and criticised   as Russophile,   which is denied by Wagenknecht. The BSW is critical of sending weapons to Ukraine and its supporters in the Russo-Ukrainian War, and blames NATO for escalating the conflict. Amidst the Israel–Hamas war, Wagenknecht described the Gaza Strip as an "open-air prison".

Bundestag
Ten members of the Bundestag (all from The Left) joined BSW at its announcement.

European Parliament
Six Members of the European Parliament were elected in the 2024 European Parliament election:

State parliaments
Alexander King, a member of the Berlin House of Representatives for The Left, joined BSW on 27 October 2023. Metin Kaya, a member of the Hamburg Parliament followed suit.

Reactions
Many members and activists within the party were relieved that Wagenknecht was leaving after months of hinting and speculation. Party members criticized BSW members of Bundestag for not returning back their mandates they had won for The Left. Some politicians of The Left expressed disappointment at the behavior of Wagenknecht's followers. Schirdewan said that he was "personally disappointed" with the defectors, whom he said had damaged the party, and called on them to return their seats in the Bundestag to The Left. The Left vice-chairman Lorenz Gösta Beutin described Wagenknecht's formation of the party as motivated by personal financial gain: "The millionaire Wagenknecht is founding a party for Wagenknecht in order to collect corporate donations for a Wagenknecht party."
 * The Left

The council of Left Youth Solid, the youth wing of The Left, was pleased with Wagenknecht's exit from the party, stating: "Our fight has finally paid off: we were longingly awaiting her departure and called on the party to kick her out. The party can now begin the process of renewal." The Left deputy parliamentary group leader Gesine Lötzsch said that a party founded by Wagenknecht should not be viewed as an opponent or enemy but as competition. She said they would look closely at how this party develops and what positions it takes up from the left. She added: "The real danger that I see is that our country is moving more and more to the right. If The Left parliamentary group no longer exists in the Bundestag, it will be even more difficult to stand against the governing coalition."

Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) general secretary Kevin Kühnert commented that "Sahra Wagenknecht has been a very established one-woman opposition for 30 years. But there is not a single political measure that is linked to her political activity where something has become better for people", and added that as Wagenknecht is rarely present in the Bundestag, he is not too worried about her new party.
 * Social Democratic Party of Germany

The Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU), which passed a resolution of incompatibility with both The Left and the AfD, discussed ways to deal with BSW. Wagenknecht offered to the CDU a coalition government if there was no majority without the AfD in the 2024 Saxony, Thuringia, and Brandenburg state elections. The Brandenburg CDU parliamentary group leader Jan Redmann said that they should wait and see the next developments, a position that was also reflected by the CDU in Thuringia. CDU deputy party leader Andreas Jung told Die Welt: "Anti-Americanism, proximity to Putin, and socialism are completely incompatible with our stance." Former agriculture minister Julia Klöckner expressed her view that a resolution of incompatibility should also apply to BSW, while Lower Saxony CDU leader Sebastian Lechner stated that there was a need for clarification, as BSW cannot be subsumed under the CDU's incompatibility decision with The Left and AfD, and that Wagenknecht's new party would have to make its own decision. CDU chairman Friedrich Merz said that BSW could take votes from the AfD, while former president Joachim Gauck (who never was a CDU member) commented that BSW could also attract dissatisfied SPD voters.
 * Christian Democratic Union of Germany

After the announcement of BSW's formation, the Brandenburg branch of the AfD fears a loss of votes in eastern Germany for the state elections that are to be held in 2024.
 * Alternative for Germany

In Germany, the Bild described Wagenknecht as a right-wing socialist, while Die Tageszeitung said that she promotes "socialism with a right-wing code". Party researchers generally assume that BSW could challenge the AfD for votes due to its views about the COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine, and migration. Deutschlandfunk commented: "For the AfD, a Wagenknecht party would be direct competition that could cost it a few percentage points and reduce its own voter potential among those disappointed by politics. Both the future Die Linke and the AfD lack charismatic figures like Wagenknecht." T-Online commented that, alongside The Left and the AfD, BSW also posed a threat to the centre-right Free Democratic Party of Germany (FDP), with around 26% of FDP voters willing to consider the party. It argued that although the FDP and BSW are opposites on most issues, with the FDP standing for economic liberalism, the bases of both parties are critical of German migration policy.
 * Media

About BSW attracting AfD voters, Die Zeit stated: "Even if Wagenknecht wants to limit rather than promote immigration, she is not yet known to have openly racist and right-wing extremist attitudes and resentments. In this respect, it would be welcome if at least some of the AfD voters turned to a Wagenknecht party." ' Similarly, Der Spiegel argued: "If the party is founded, the new movement could lure away voters from the AfD. That would not be a bad thing on the surface: left-wing populism à la Wagenknecht is still better than a party on the far right. That is why they are afraid of the new group there." Handelsblatt commented that Wagenknecht could do what Merz has failed to do, namely "the halving of the AfD".

In Britain, The Spectator questioned whether Wagenknecht would succeed with her party, citing the "element of the personality cult". The Guardian stated that, along with the surge of far-right AfD in the polls, the rise of Wagenknecht's party signals rising discontent of the general population with the ruling Scholz cabinet, which Wagenknecht described as "the worst government in its history"; according to the polls, if an election were to take place in October 2023, BSW could win up to 20% of the national vote. The newspaper also commented that the new party puts The Left at risk of political irrelevance, as the party has long suffered from infighting and declining electoral returns. Political scientist Andrea Römmele described BSW as "an alternative to the Alternative for Germany", arguing that the party could claim support lost by The Left to the AfD in the new states. Political scientist Benjamin Höhne commented: "The niche BSW is opening up – stressing social justice, and at the same time ... [Wagenknecht] positioning herself in a more migration-sceptical way – has potential." In Italy, the Corriere della Sera described BSW as the "mirror image of the AfD".